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BARC-Ins stitut, Augu 2011 ust

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

Table of Contents
Overview: BI with SAP BusinessObjects solutions ............................................................ 3 Brandwidth of BI: Typical requirements ............................................................................... 4 End-user roles in BI environments....................................................................................... 6 SAP BusinessObjetcs BI 4.0: Modern, integrated BI suite .................................................. 8 SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: Tool overview ....................................................................... 9 SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 for SAP NetWeaver BW ...................................................... 10 Improved access to SAP NetWeaver BS data with BICS .................................................. 11 Access to heterogeneous data sources............................................................................. 11 Interoperability in the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite ........................................... 12 Integration with the SAP NetWeaver technology platform ................................................. 13 SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 embedded in the SAP Business Suite .............................. 14 Step-by-step guideline for SAP customers ....................................................................... 15 Transition screnarios for BI tool categories ....................................................................... 15 Dashboards and cockpits ................................................................................................ 15 Standard reporting .......................................................................................................... 16 Ad hoc reporting .............................................................................................................. 16 Exploration (search and guided analysis) ....................................................................... 17 Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 17 Planning .......................................................................................................................... 17 Outlook on SAP product strategy ...................................................................................... 18 In-memory computing ..................................................................................................... 18 Mobility ............................................................................................................................ 18 Collaboration ................................................................................................................... 19 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 20

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SAP BusinesObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

Overview: BI with SAP BusinessObjects solutions

Business Intelligence (BI) supports companies by delivering important information for decision-making and management processes. To ensure a successful implementation, companies need to address a range of technical and business concerns as well as create a supporting organization. For more than 10 years SAP has delivered BI technology to provide relevant decision-making information to a broad range of users. SAP BW: In 1998 SAP launched SAP BW, a complete packaged business intelligence (BI) solution designed to complement SAP ERP applications. The package contains connectors to SAP ERP modules, a data warehouse for storing source data, subject-oriented data marts, predefined content as well as tools for reporting, analysis, and planning. The goal was to provide a plug-and-play BI solution that would make it fast and easy for SAP customers to enjoy the benefits of business intelligence. Since then, SAP has expanded the package in response to customer requirements and improved its quality, reliability, and performance. Version 7, which came out in 2006, offered new tools for planning and standard reporting as well as enhanced usability for its front-end reporting and analysis tools. Business Objects: In 2007, SAP took a major leap towards delivering a world-class BI solution when it acquired Business Objects, the leading BI player by market share at the time. The acquisition brought SAP a bevy of best-of-breed BI tools and applications as well as new and more open data management capabilities. Several months after the acquisition, SAP announced a strategic roadmap for BI that outlined how it would combine BI products from the two companies, rationalize overlapping products, and integrate technologies. In short, SAP decided to focus future development on the Business Objects BI product line, move legacy SAP Business Explorer (BEx) query and reporting products to maintenance, and improve the interfaces between Business Objects products and SAP BW to optimize performance and usability. SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: In April 2011, SAP launched the first major release for SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions following the acquisition. The SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite delivers new features, functions, and an improved integration with SAP NetWeaver BW and the SAP Business Suite.

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio The current SAP BusinessObjects portfolio of solutions is divided into five groups: Business Intelligence, Enterprise Information Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Analytic Applications as well as Governance, Risk, and Compliance. This document focuses on its BI solutions. BI solutions: The suite of BI solutions encompasses all reporting, analysis, and dashboarding functionality. Enterprise Information Management (EIM) solutions: The SAP BusinessObjects portfolio gives customers a data services platform that covers many data integration scenarios, provides robust access to heterogeneous data sources along with data quality management functionality, and tightly integrates with the SAP BusinessObjects suite of BI and planning tools. Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions: These solutions leverage the BI suite. These include Profitability and Cost Management, Strategy Management, and Planning and Consolidation. Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions: These applications, which also run with the BI suite, help companies manage risk and compliance. Analytic Applications: SAP offers a set of predefined applications for specific industries and business scenarios within the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio. These applications are built upon SAP BusinessObjects solutions.

This research paper is designed to help existing SAP customers plan their BI strategies in line with the new SAP BusinessObjects environment. The guide will describe the new reporting, analysis, and dashboarding products in the portfolio and recommend how and when to implement them based on their existing SAP environments.

Brandwidth of BI: Typical requirements

Different requirements for BI solutions can be observed in companies. They start with easyto-use dashboards for everyone and end with complex data mining workbenches that can only be used by experts. Chart 1 depicts the major tool categories for BI and Performance Management (PM) and plots them by end-user flexibility and development complexity. The main categories are:

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SAP Busi inesObjects BI 4.0 in S s SAP Environ nments

Figure 1: BI and PM tool categories (S Source: BARC BI Verdict) )

Dashbo oards, cock kpits or scorecards Dashbo oards are a also referred to as co ckpits or even scorec d e cards. They provide graphical y g views o key perfo of ormance ind dicators an the abilit to drill down into de nd ty etails. Som dashme boards are self-service, allow wing end us sers to crea their ow layouts w ate wn without any outside y Others requi support from a mo technic ire ore cally sophisticated bus siness user or pror help. O gramme Scoreca er. ards often incorporate strategy maps and in m nitiative ma anagement applications. Standard reportin ng Standar reports a formatte page-o riented reports run on regular sc rd are ed, n chedules. Standard S reports encompass s: S Static repor which usually have the widest audience in a compan because they rts, e t ny a simple t use are to Prompted r reports, whic enable u ch users to filte reports ba er ased on pre edefined paramet ters

tion, standa reports also suppo pixel-perf ard ort fect display which giive develop ys, pers preIn addit cise con ntrol over t the placeme of repo objects and images on a scre ent ort a s een, as well as rich

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printing options, dynamic page sizing, and a WYSIWYG (i.e. what you see is what you get) development interface. Ad hoc reporting and exploration In many cases, users want more interactivity than they can get with standard reports. Ad hoc reporting tools are geared to non-professional report developers and provide basic filtering and navigation features, such as drill down, ranking, and conditional formatting. Users can start their analysis by opening a predefined report or selecting query objects from a semantic layer. Compared with analysis tools, ad hoc reporting tools have fewer analytical functions and less robust navigational features. Exploration tools allow casual users to search for relevant data and reports using a keyword interface. In an exploration process after a final search, users often use filters and a simple, set-oriented navigation. Analysis Analysis tools, also known as online analytical processing (OLAP) tools, provide dimensional views of data (versus reporting views) and make it easy for users to drill down, drill across, and pivot dimensions as well as apply sophisticated calculations without scripting. Users can also define new sets and apply calculations to them. Analysis tools can run against dimensional or relational databases.

End-user roles in BI environments

SAP BW offers two tools for reporting, analysis, and planning: BEx Analyzer (including the Web edition) and Web Application Designer. The new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite now offers different tools, which allow customers to better tailor reporting, analysis, and planning to user roles and requirements. Although the new portfolio should improve adoption and usage, it requires SAP customers to spend more time upfront understanding user requirements.

User categories: To select the right tools, companies must first segment users into categories based on their analytical habits and requirements. These profiles make it easier to assign the right BI tool to each category of user.

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SAP Busi inesObjects BI 4.0 in S s SAP Environ nments

Chart 2 provides a sample framework for mapping to r ools to user The fram rs. mework divid all des nto egories: 1) in nformation p producers who create reports and views for others w d o users in two cate and 2) i information consumers who consu s ume those reports and views. r

Figure 2: User roles and too categories (Source: BA ol ARC BI Verdic cts)

Informa ation produ ucers: Info ormation pro oducers also called power use d ers usually make up abou 10 to 20 p ut percent of the total use populatio They exp t er on. plore data, create mod dels, and build reports. Typic information produce are: cal ers ort IT report de evelopers who use repo design or programm w o ming tools to create custom o r reports Business analysts who use OLAP Excel add o P, d-in, ad hoc query, or v c visual discovery t tools to ana alyze data fo trends an anomalie as well as data miniing tools to create or nd es a d descriptive and predict tive models s S Super users or technic s, cally savvy power user who crea ad hoc r rs, ate b reports on behalf o the collea of agues in the departm eir ments

Informa ation consumers: Inf formation co a onsumers also called casual users are often executiv ves, manag gers, staff, or even cus o stomers and suppliers who consu s ume the ou utput developed by informa d ation producers. They regularly view reports for decisio v s on-making but dont b crunch numbers or perform detailed ana r alysis on a daily basis. Casual use are wel served d ers ll by most types of in t nteractive re eports such as: BARC Business Application Research Center n

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

Standard reports with internal links or search functions Interactive or parameterized reports and exploration tools Dashboards with drill-down features. These tools generally provide a Web interface to promote ubiquitous access and minimize administration.

SAP BusinessObjetcs BI 4.0: Modern, integrated BI suite

With the new major release of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0, SAP now offers reporting, dashboarding, and analysis tools in a BI suite for all categories and user roles in a modern, integrated architecture. The new suite can be categorized as:

Comprehensive: SAPs new BI suite contains tools for standard reporting, ad hoc reporting, analysis, dashboards, and guided exploration. This is one of the most comprehensive BI platforms in the industry.

Open: Business users need to access information stored in multiple systems and locations to make effective decisions. The universe concept used with most SAP BusinessObjects tools enables business users to access a variety of data sources. For example, users can query SAP NetWeaver BW as well as third-party relational and multidimensional data sources and combine the result sets in a single report. With the new BI 4.0 suite, this process is now even easier thanks to multi-source universes.

Self-service: The new SAP BusinessObjects BI environment makes it easier to create and deploy new applications. Rather than having developers build applications or reports from scratch to meet each new request, business users can now create their own reports in a self-service manner by selecting predefined metrics, dimensions, and other objects from a semantic layer. In addition to easing the backlog of reports and requests, this improves user satisfaction and adoption while saving time and money.

Performance: SAPs new BI offering contains a new concept using in-memory computing technologies, which improve query performance for large data volumes. Query performance is one of the most important factors to obtain higher levels of user satisfaction.

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SAP BusinesObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

Mobile: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 now delivers native support for mobile devices. This mobile support makes it faster and easier to create and deploy new applications to all relevant recipients.

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: Tool overview

The SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite addresses different BI tool classes to provide BI for every user type: Product Category Dashboarding Strategic Products SAP BusinessObejcts Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius) Standard reporting Ad hoc reporting SAP Crystal Reports SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Analysis Search and exploration SAP BusinessObjects Analysis SAP BusinessObjects Explorer SAP BEx Analyzer n/a Legacy Products SAP BEx Web Application Designer SAP BEx Report Designer n/a

Figure 3: Strategic and legacy BI products from SAP

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 in SAP Environments

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 for SAP NetWeaver BW

The new BI suite provides many new features that will significantly enhance the quality and adoption of customers BI and performance management solutions. For SAP NetWeaver BW customers, the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 provides significant new features compared to the legacy SAP BEx front-end tools: Common architecture: The new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 tools work within a common architecture that simplifies administration, reduces costs, and enhances usability. For example, most tools in the suite share a semantic layer, portal, security model as well as look and feel. With the new release, SAP delivers this architecture, providing shared services for querying, charting, metadata, prompting, and data access.

Semantic layer: The new products leverage a common semantic layer that promotes reuse and self-service on top of SAP NetWeaver BW. The semantic layer defines a set of objects in business terms that shield users from the complexity of back-end databases. Developers and casual business users then drag and drop these objects into a panel to create reports, dashboards, and analyses.

Role-based: SAP now gives customers the ability to tailor their solution to specific roles (e.g. IT report creator, business report creator, business analyst, report viewer, business explorer). Each role corresponds to a different tool in the SAP portfolio. In addition, administrators can restrict access to data within each tool based on groups. Role-based applications tailor the information and views to individual groups of users.

Heterogeneous data access: The new tools enable users to easily access many relational or multidimensional data sources via the semantic layer. Consequently, users can combine data from multiple sources in the same report or even the same table. With the new BI 4.0 suite, this process is now even easier thanks to multi-source universes.

Ease of use: The broader tool portfolio provides a more user-friendly, Web-based interface which can increase the use of data in SAP NetWeaver BW systems and, therefore, generate more value from existing SAP NetWeaver BW data warehouse investments.

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Pervasive: SAPs new BI suite provides better alignment for power users in the business units. The self-service concepts are clearly more efficient compared to the legacy SAP BEx front-end tools.

Improved access to SAP NetWeaver BS data with BICS

Before using SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0, SAP customers have to decide how they want to access SAP NetWeaver BW content. With the native BICS (BI Consumer Services) access to existing and new SAP BW/BEx queries, SAP delivers an SAP-exclusive way to connect to SAP NetWeaver BW content. Additionally, there are several other options to leverage information in SAP environments. BI Consumer Services (BICS): BICS is the data-access layer for SAP NetWeaver BW front-end tools and can now be leveraged by SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0. BICS is built upon native SAP API calls and allows SAP NetWeaver BW users to reuse their BEx query definitions. The new data access architecture allows a TCO reduction by reusing existing query definitions. In addition, it supports better query performance using the native API as well as the consumption of OLAP metadata (e.g. hierarchies and variables) in SAP NetWeaver BW.

Direct access to InfoProviders: With the new architecture, SAP offers customers direct access to SAP NetWeaver BW data without using the OLAP processor. This approach allows high-performance access to the DSO layer in SAP NetWeaver BW implementations.

Legacy OLAP universes: SAP BusinessObjects universes that are already implemented with SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 are still supported on the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 platform. Customers can run legacy universes parallel to BICS access.

Access to heterogeneous data sources

SAP BusinessObjects offers good possibilities for merging SAP BW and third-party data. SAP customers can choose from and implement several different options to deliver a flexible, comprehensive architecture. Multi-source universes with the new semantic layer: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 now offers a new semantic layer that enables customers to join different sources in

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SAP B BusinessOb bjects BI 4.0 in SAP En 0 nvironments s

o univers With this new sema one se. s antic layer, SAP Busine S essObjects BI 4.0 can federate r relational so ources and SAP NetW Weaver BW content thro c ough the dir rect access to SAP NetWeaver BW InfoProviders. r

New dimen nsional uni iverses for third-party OLAP data sources The new semanr y s: s t layer sup tic pports exten nsive navig ation of hierarchical da in differe OLAP data ata ent d s sources suc as Micro ch osoft Analys Services sis s.

Figure 4: Data access with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 s

Interoperability in the new SAP B y Business sObjects BI 4.0 sui B ite

SAP Bu usinessObje ects BI 4.0 offers enha anced interoperability and improv ved tool inte egration. In addition to the d direct reuse of report d definitions in different to n ools, the ne data view definiew w an ed he ts se d tions ca be share across th different component in the BI suite. Thes so-called Analysis View can be consumed to build in ws nteractive re eports and the definitio ons can be shared e with oth business users and tools. her s d A typica analysis process st al tarts with e exploring da and def ata fining new information Oftenn. times, the insight t that is gained then ha to be sha as ared with a larger num mber of use This ers. n rent components of th SAP Bus he sinessObjects 4 BI insight can now be reused in the differ suite. In a typical BI process: usiness ana alyst produc an analy ces ysis. 1. A bu 2. The OLAP query definition (Analysis View) is sha e n ared in the BI platform.

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3. Othe business users build and/or consume (inte er s d eractive) rep ports off the OLAP e query.

Figure 5: Ana F alysis views i n SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 Platform B m

Through the deepe integratio of the ne BI suite, SAP has responded to the weaknesses h er on ew of the S SAP Busine essObjects XI 3.x serie The possibility to exchange c es. e content and reports d across t suites c the components offers new possibilitie to reuse and leverag existing content. s w es ge

Integra ation with the SAP NetWea h P aver technology platform

In addition to the im mprovemen in the SA Busines nts AP ssObjects BI suite, SAP continues to drive P s egration in it own prod ts duct portfol io. This add value for existing S ds SAP custom mers and the inte ments the e existing SAP system la P andscape. complem This int tegration di istinguishes SAP BI a s and PM so olutions from third-part solutions Some m rty s. highligh of the de hts eeper integr ration are: SAP So olution Mana ager integra ation: Unifie centraliz monitor ed, zed ring to enab endble to-end, root- cause analysis e hange &Transport Syst tem integration: Unified change an transpor mand nd rt SAP Ch agemen to promot SAP Bus nt te sinessObjec BI content througho its lifecycle cts out Commo infrastruc on cture: Unifie Java app ed plication env vironment a continue supand ed port for SAP NetWeaver Java Web Application Serv to optimiize TCO. a ver

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 embedded in the SAP Business Suite

Customers using SAP NetWeaver BW as well as SAP Business Suite can benefit from this enhanced integration. Besides the integration into SAP Solution Manager and the other aspects mentioned above, the SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite is also deeply integrated in the SAP Business Suite. The new integration delivers a modern user experience and compelling, actionable analytics directly embedded in the SAP Business Suite workflows with no need to switch to another environment to access BI.

With these new embedded analytics SAP Business Suite customers can: Improve the efficiency of their business processes Enable pervasive BI from the boardroom to the shop floor Close the gap between strategy and execution

The integration leverages investments in the SAP Business Suite to help a broader range of users gain deeper insight and allow them to act immediately in the context of the transactions. For instance, users can now consume ALV as SAP Crystal Reports, run role-based analytics via the SAP launch pad, and mash up transactions with interactive visualizations. SAP also delivers predefined dashboards and reports to provide customers with out-of-thebox content that leverages best practices and improves the time to value. Through the unique integration, they can easily extend and customize this content to meet specific needs.

The new embedded analytic capabilities support different scenarios including: Scenarios Display lists with SAP Crystal Reports Description Operational reports Layout for SAP ALV Value Leverage ALV investment High layout control Real-time scenarios Leverage BW investments Interactive reports and dashboards Real-time scenarios Easy-to-use, interactive visualizations Real-time scenarios

Deploy as SAP NetWeaver BW content

Reports and dashboards deployed as BW content IIntegration with SAP roles and launch pad Integrated mash-ups Read and write options

Mash-ups

Figure 6: Overview of new scenarios for embedded analytics

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Step-by-step guideline for SAP customers

As an SAP customer, you should evaluate your current and future BI strategies in light of the new SAP BusinessObjects environment. To ensure a smooth transition, your company should: Start thinking about it now. Now is the time to start the process of transitioning your existing BI tools to the new environment. This is especially true if you have multiple applications and reports written in the original SAP NetWeaver BW environment. SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 offers options to reuse existing developments and secure existing investments. Define a BI strategy first. Using a project-by-project approach without an overall BI strategy is one of the main reasons why companies do not achieve the desired level of success in their projects or obtain optimal benefits from their BI systems. This strategy should cover technical, business as well as organizational aspects. Create a roadmap. The first step in transitioning to the new environment is to develop a roadmap that defines 1.) which tools you will implement from the portfolio, 2.) which timeline is planned for building new applications and converting existing ones to the new environment, and 3.) which applications can be converted in their current state and which need to be adapted to meet new requirements. Act soon. Creating a roadmap takes time and effort. You need to list and prioritize existing applications and reports, gather user requirements, understand and select the new tools from the SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite, and create timetables for the complete transition. For this reason, it is imperative that you start developing your roadmap as soon as possible.

Transition screnarios for BI tool categories

The following scenarios provide additional insight on how SAP customers can migrate to the new SAP reporting, analysis, and planning environment. Each scenario looks at how SAP customers create various types of reports and analytic output today and makes recommendations on how to evolve this content with the new SAP BusinessObjects reporting, analysis, and planning tools. Dashboards and cockpits Scenario: Your team uses SAP BEx Analyzer or SAP Web Application Designer to build dashboards. SAP BEx Analyzers Excel client, however, doesnt provide adequate layout

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controls and building dashboards with SAP Web Application Designer is often too costly and time-consuming. Recommendation: Use SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards to build new dashboards. Dashboard offers a state-of-the-art user interface (i.e. Flash), fast response times (once the data is downloaded), and what-if modeling. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards can use the new BI Consumer Interface to SAP BW or the access via universes. Use BI workspaces in BI 4.0 when the dashboard needs to contain output from numerous SAP BusinessObjects tools (e.g. tables from reports, charts from analyses, and what-if models from a dashboard). With BI workspaces, users have self-service options to build up their own dashboards. Standard reporting Scenario: Your team uses SAP BEx Analyzer or SAP Web Application Designer to build standard reports but these tools arent geared to deliver highly formatted, page-oriented, pixel-perfect reports that publish content in a variety of formats (e.g. PDF, HTML, CSV, Word, XML). Recommendation: Use SAP Crystal Reports to build all new standard reports and convert existing ones. If users dont require highly complex reports, you can implement SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence for reporting. You can use Web Intelligence as a tool for ad hoc reporting, page-oriented reports, and easy-to-use analysis. Ad hoc reporting Scenario: Some business users who want to create their own reports struggle with the Query Designer in BEx Analyzer because they find that it is too difficult to use and doesnt contain the functions they need. As a result, some only use BEx Analyzer to export the data to Excel where they create a report or perform an analysis. Others ask IT to create a custom report or simply make decisions based on gut feelings. Recommendation: Deploy SAP BusinessObjects WebIntelligence to users who want an easy-to-use interface and semantic layer to access data and create reports. WebIntelligence is ideal for super users who need a flexible way to gain insight on their data or create ad hoc reports for colleagues in their departments. Alternatively, SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for OLAP / Office also provides additional analysis features. Another, albeit less flexible, option is to use SAP Crystal Reports to create predefined. interactive reports tailored to each department. This gives users interactive reports but not the ability to create their own from scratch. This might be a suitable option for companies that BARC Business Application Research Center

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already plan to use Crystal Reports and only have small-scale ad hoc reporting requirements in their business units. Exploration (search and guided analysis) Scenario: Your casual users dont explore information because there is no way for them to do so. At best, they request a power/super user or IT developer to create a custom report for them using BEx Analyzer or Web Application Designer. Recommendation: Deploy SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to get a quick win with casual users who want to search for relevant data and reports using a keyword interface. Explorer also lets users search result sets using filters and simple set-oriented navigation. The tool also provides excellent performance because it embeds SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator or an alternative database which processes queries in memory. Analysis Scenario: Some power users can use BEx Analyzer effectively and some cannot. Those who struggle with BEx Analyzer find that BEx Query Designer is too complex to use due to its vast functions and missing semantic layer. Recommendation: Deploy SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for OLAP or Office. SAP BusinessObjects Analysis uses the new BI Consumer Interface to SAP BW and supports comparable functions to SAP BEx Analyzer. Planning Scenario: You use SAP SEM BPS or SAP BI Integrated Planning (IP) but many business users find these tools inflexible since they generally require an IT developer to build models, processes, and forms. Recommendation: Convert SAP SEM BPS applications to SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (BPC), which is SAPs strategic planning solution from here onward. If users are happy with SAP BW Integrated Planning (IP), however, stay with the product for now since it is not being discontinued. Just keep in mind that SAP will convert BW IP to an IT-based planning framework for BW and encourage customers to use SAP BPC in the long term. Please note that if you are a European company with complex consolidation requirements, SAP BPC may not support your short-term needs because the product was originally designed to support less complex scenarios. SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation might be a better fit to such requirements. Also, SAP BPC has run on Microsoft SQL Server since it was launched in 1999 and was only recently ported to SAP BW. Therefore, the SQL BARC Business Application Research Center

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Server edition may contain additional features and functions that are not currently available in the SAP BW version. Both BPC versions are strategic for SAP.

Outlook on SAP product strategy

In-memory computing One of the most important developments over the last months is SAP HANA an in-memory, columnar database. In-memory technology can process mass quantities of real-time data in the main memory of the server to provide immediate results from analyses and transactions. The most obvious reason for in-memory BI is that it is extremely fast, which is a big plus for users. The biggest performance bottleneck in typical BI applications is slow disk or even slower database access, which is hundreds of times slower than RAM access. Since disk access is not the only bottleneck, however, in-memory tools are not hundreds of times faster than disk-based tools in general. SAP HANA will try to deliver solutions to process massive quantities of real-time and analytical data to provide immediate results from analyses and transactions. SAP will distribute HANA as both an application and platform for delivering the next generation of business applications built by SAP as well as its partners and customers. HANA is an interesting analytical database engine for both SAP customers and non-SAP customers. The first versions of HANA have already showed good performance and allows SAPs customers to implement new business cases. HANA can be used in different scenarios: Operational data marts for real-time analytics for SAP ERP systems Agile data marts for stand-alone analytic solutions Application accelerators for analytic applications or SAP BW systems

The first release supports the stand-alone data mart; all other scenarios will be supported over time.

Mobility As more and more decision-makers need to operate beyond the boundaries of their desks and offices, mobility has emerged as a key trend in the BI sector and the IT industry in general. Decisions are made all the time and processes need to be completed and recorded no matter where those decision-makers are. SAP has addressed this increased demand in

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the market through its acquisition of Sybase and the Sybase Unwired Platform (SUP). SAPs product strategy for mobile BI is to deliver a set of mobile BI applications that can enable the transformation to mobile enterprises. Solutions for Apple and BlackBerry devices are already available. With SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, mobile users can access full tool functions via mobile devices.

Collaboration The consumerization of IT and the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies have been driving business empowerment and the demand for an easy user experience. Massive increases in information have made it more difficult for business professionals to find pertinent information and, therefore, often resulted in fragmented, poorly informed decision-making processes. SAPs product strategy is to address these challenges by delivering business intelligence solutions that bring collaborative and social capabilities from SAP StreamWork to SAP BusinessObjects BI. SAP intends to further enhance the collaboration features in its new BI suite as well as its performance management products in the future.

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Summary
SAPs acquisition of Business Objects has given SAP customers many more options for architecting their BI and DW environments. With the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 suite, SAP NetWeaver BW customers will especially benefit from: Native access to SAP NetWeaver BW through a common semantic layer Combination of relational, multidimensional, and SAP NetWeaver BW data in one report BI front-end integration and interoperability across the suite components More self-service options for power users and report consumers Mobile device support Query performance improvements on top of SAP NetWeaver BW Deeper system integration in the SAP NetWeaver technology platform

SAP customers who are initiating new BI projects in the short term should convert to the new SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 portfolio immediately. Eventually, all SAP NetWeaver BW customers will need to undertake this transition since SAP has moved the suite of SAP BEx front-end tools to maintenance. Before an organization can switch to the new BI environment, it will need to create a migration roadmap, understand user roles, gather reporting requirements, and select the proper tools. Following this process will ensure a greater degree of success throughout the transition. With SAP HANA, SAP has taken a new direction with regards to in-memory computing. This new engine can address the issue of query performance, one of the biggest challenges in BI projects. In particular, the upcoming HANA release will show the potential of SAPs new database.

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